Core i7 7700K processor review: Desktop Kaby Lake -
A CPU tested

We review the flagship quad-core Intel Core i7 7700K processor, the new Kaby Lake generation from Intel is fabbed on the 14nm node; these processors are energy friendly. For this review we look at the performance of this processor in a wide variety of benchmarks and situations.

Kaby Lake Core i5 7600K and Core i7 7700K processors for the desktop platform have been released. Though you'd think it is an all new chip, it is merely a respin seen from Skylake, meaning both series processors are Socket 1151. This also means that IF you are in the market for a new series 7000 processor, your H170 or Z170 motherboard can be compatible with Kaby Lake after a motherboard BIOS upgrade. The new series Kaby Lake processors are fairly energy efficient, still as powerful as they have been for years. If you are interested in new technologies like Intel Optane, you will however need to upgrade to a Z270 or H270 range motherboard. In this review we test the Core i7 7700K; an unlocked Kaby Lake processor that has four cores and a slim 91W TDP, similar to Skylake TDP wise, once again a processor fabbed on the 14nm fabrication process.

CPU

Core i7-7700K

Core i5-7600K

Core i7-6700K

Core i5-6600K

Core i7-4790K

Core i7-4770K

Codename

Kaby Lake

Kaby Lake

Skylake

Skylake

Haswell

Haswell

Package

LGA1151

LGA1151

LGA1151

LGA1151

LGA1150

LGA1150

Cores/threads

4/8

4/4

4/8

4/4

4/8

4/8

Frequency（GHz）

4.2-4.5

3.8-4.2

4.0-4.2

3.5-3.9

4.0-4.4

3.5-3.9

memory

DDR4-2400

DDR4-2400

DDR4-2133

DDR4-2133

DDR3-1600

DDR3-1600

IGP

Intel HD 630

Intel HD 630

Intel HD 530

Intel HD 530

Intel HD 4600

Intel HD 4600

L3 Cache

8MB

6MB

8MB

6MB

8MB

8MB

Fab

14nm

14nm

14nm

14nm

22nm

22nm

Unlocked multiplier

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

TDP

91W

91W

91W

91W

84W

95W

Kaby Lake is the third step in Intel's 'process-architecture-optimization' strategy. The chips are, much like Broadwell and Skylake, produced at 14nm, but should get some optimizations, such as support for Optane SSDs. The quad core CPU has 8 MB of L3 cache, and an integrated memory controller that supports both DDR4 and DDR3 memory. The Z270 and H270 series motherboards will all be offered with DDR4 though. For the gaming community the two K model processors are the most important.

Kaby Lake is the code name used by Intel for the 14nm processor micro-architecture under development and is the successor to the Skylake architecture. As stated, in this review we focus on the Core i7 7700K. Let's get started shall we?

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